10 Unbreakable Celebrity Friendships

Good girlfriends are hard to find — especially in a place like Hollywood, where Botox, breakups, and betrayals reign supreme, and the girl next door is your rival for a role in the new Ryan Reynolds movie. It would be easy to lose yourself in the hype and sell out your best gal pal to get ahead, but bullying and belittling someone else is not the secret to happiness; it’s a recipe for disaster. Maintaining friendships outside Hollywood isn’t easy either. Work, kids, and other daily stresses often leave no time for leisure or, by extension, friends. One Australian study found that women spend only 5 percent of their time each week with pals.

“In general, the role of friendship in our lives isn’t terribly well appreciated,” said Rebecca G. Adams, PhD, a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, in an interview for the New York Times. “It baffles me. Friendship has a bigger impact on our psychological well-being than family relationships.”

Research backs that up: One University of Michigan study found that spending quality bonding time with a girlfriend led to increased levels of the hormone progesterone, which helps boost mood and alleviate stress. Another study, from Harvard Medical School, concluded that women with lots of friends were more likely to be living a joyful life. Read on for more details about the power of friends.

Girlfriends Are Good for Your Health

“People with stronger friendship networks feel like there is someone they can turn to,” said Karen A. Roberto, PhD, director of the center for gerontology at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. “Friendship is an undervalued resource. The consistent message is that friends make your life better.”

Better — and healthier. In one 10-year Australian study, women with large circles of friends were up to 22 percent less likely to die within a given time period than their less socially active counterparts. And according to the Harvard study, they’re also less likely to get colds, suffer depression, and develop age-related physical impairments. In fact, research shows that not having friends is as detrimental to your health as smoking or being overweight.

Clearly, pals are pivotal to a happy, healthy life. Just ask these celeb BFFs, who’ve seen each other through every kind of life change there is, from birth to death, heartache to hope.

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Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King

The media mogul and her longtime BFF have one of the most intensely scrutinized relationships in Hollywood. Their closeness — King once said they talk on the phone "three or four times a day" — has led some to speculate that they might be more than friends, a rumor both women have repeatedly denied throughout their 30-plus-year communion.

"I understand why people think we're gay," Oprah said in an interview for her magazine, of which King is editor-at-large. "There isn't a definition in our culture for this kind of bond between women." In fact, she can't explain it, either: "Something about this relationship feels otherworldly to me, like it was designed by a power and a hand greater than my own."

In an interview with Barbara Walters, Oprah gushed of King: "She is the mother I never had. She is the sister everybody would want. She is the friend that everybody deserves. I don't know a better person."

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Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz

The former co-stars have been “like sisters” since they shared the screen in the 2000 movie Charlie’s Angels— but their friendship goes back even further, to when Diaz, then 16, frequented the Beverly Hills coffee shop where 14-year-old Barrymore worked.

“Cameron Diaz is one of the greatest friends anyone can ever have,” Barrymore raved to British magazine Look. “She has so much love to give. We just spend so much time having fun and laughing together. That’s what true friendship is about.” That, and “crazy adventures,” she told Cosmopolitan when her pal appeared on the cover this year. “I always know she’s game. That has been a big part of our friendship, knowing that she’ll throw down at any time.”

Diaz, for her part, says the feeling is mutual. “Drew is wise and a solid friend,” she said in Cosmo. “It’s crucial to have friends who will have your back, and Drew always has mine.”

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Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox

Aniston and Cox were paid to be pals on NBC’s sitcom Friends in the 1990s, but these days, their quality time is off the clock and just for fun. Recent reports have suggested that the two had a falling out (first over Cox’s separation from her husband, actor David Arquette, and then over Aniston’s new romance with Justin Theroux), but both stars insist they’re still tight.

“We grew up together emotionally,” Cox told the Daily Mail of their lasting bond. “I lost my father, Jen got divorced, and I had a baby. We’ve been through huge life changes together. I can be myself around her. We never judge each other. We support each other, but we’re honest with each other, too. I feel lucky to have her.”

Aniston, who has guest-starred on both of Cox’s post-Friends series (Dirt and Cougar Town) and is godmother to her pal’s daughter, Coco, returns the sentiment. “Courteney has been there for me in a lot of ways,” she said on The Oprah Show. “She really is the most dependable and loyal — and funny as all get-out.”

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Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts

Leading ladies Kidman and Watts have been friends ever since they met as teenagers growing up in Australia. Their bond has spanned decades and continents, enduring even when Kidman moved to Hollywood, became a movie star, and married Tom Cruise. Watts’ career was slower to take off — she didn’t get her big break until 2001’s Mulholland Drive— but Kidman was by her friend’s side the entire time and in fact convinced Watts not to give up and go back to Australia.

The women’s lives have changed a lot over the years — Kidman divorced Cruise in 2001 and married country star Keith Urban in 2006; Watts fell in love with the late Heath Ledger in 2002 before settling down with actor Liev Schrieber in 2005 — but their friendship has remained a constant.

“Naomi is like my sister,” Kidman told Newsweek. “We’ve shared boyfriends, breakups, bottles of wine when we thought our lives were over. I mean, every single thing you can imagine. She moved into my house when I got divorced and took care of me.”

Added Watts in an interview for October’s More magazine: “We’ve seen each other go through a lot, and we’ve both consistently been there for each other. Nicole has been a great friend and an inspiration.”

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Michelle Williams and Busy Phillips

The Oscar-nominated Blue Valentine actress met her BFF on the set of the WB’s soapy teen drama Dawson’s Creek, when Phillips joined the cast as the college roommate of Katie Holmes’ character in 2001. Since then, their lives and careers have taken very different paths — Williams now lives in New York and is focusing on films, while Phillips has a home in Los Angeles and is continuing to make a name for herself on TV, most recently on Courteney Cox’s new sitcom, Cougar Town.

Still, they’ve remained close over the years, sticking together through times of joy (the births of their children) and tragedy (the sudden death of Heath Ledger, Williams’ ex and the father of her daughter, Matilda). Phillips was even her friend’s date to this year’s Oscars, where Williams was nominated for the second time in her career (the first was for 2005’s Brokeback Mountain, the film where she met Ledger). And despite the distance between them, the moms get their kids together for play dates as often as possible. (Phillips’ daughter, Birdie, is 3 years younger than Matilda.)

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Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz

The brunette beauties have been spotted together on and off the red carpet ever since they co-starred in the 2006 movie Bandidas. But reports say the two have been pals since before Cruz got her big break stateside in Vanilla Sky. “It is great to see somebody who you think deserves it get everything she has ever dreamed of,” Hayek told Vogue of her BFF. “It’s magical. It gives you hope.”

Cruz recalls a less hopeful time in their friendship — but one that cemented their bond forever. During the filming of Bandidas, the two had a scare when their plane had to make an emergency landing. “We almost died,” Cruz has said. “A thought came across my mind that if I were to die at that moment, at least I’d die with my best friend.”

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Beyonce Knowles and Kelly Rowland

Destiny’s Child may have broken up, but at least the friendship between two of its leading ladies — Knowles and Rowland — has weathered the storm. Rowland is a frequent guest at her former bandmate’s concerts and appearances, and Bey has been vocal about her support for Rowland’s solo career as well, even recording a video message for her friend to air on Access Hollywood. “My Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, I love you so much. Your album is incredible,” she gushed. “I’m so happy.”

The pals are so close, in fact, that they consider each other family. Rowland even refers to Bey as her sister and says she’s “excited to be an auntie” to the star’s baby with Jay-Z. “It’s a wonderful moment,” Rowland told MTV. “I just saw my sister today, and I got a chance to rub her tummy.”

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Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez

Disney’s reigning teen queens have been best buds since they were 6 years old, when they both worked on the TV show Barney. It hasn’t always been smooth sailing — Gomez’s bond with Taylor Swift was rumored to have caused a temporary rift between the pals, and Lovato’s mental health issues (she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder earlier this year) have been a challenge for both girls — but they’ve managed to maintain their friendship through good times and bad.

“Many people believe that there is some rivalry between us, but there isn’t,” Gomez said in an interview for the Spanish outlet El Paradiario. “She is my best friend. We respect our careers and our friendship, and we have a mutual admiration for each other.”

Lovato concurs. “The people that are really there for me are the people that were there for me when I went into treatment,” Lovato told Billboard. “The people that were calling me while I was in there were Kim Kardashian and Selena Gomez. Those two girls — they meant the world to me. They still do.”

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Tina Fey and Amy Poehler

The former Saturday Night Live co-stars have terrific chemistry both onscreen and off. During their time on SNL, they starred opposite each other in some of the show’s most successful sketches — most notably, those now-famous Sarah Palin/Hillary Clinton/Katie Couric skits from the 2008 presidential election, featuring Fey as Palin and Poehler as Clinton/Couric. They also appeared in two movies (Mean Girls and Baby Mama) and have performed improv comedy together at New York City’s Upright Citizens Brigade.

Earlier this year, Fey paid tribute to her pal in her book, Bossypants. “Weirdly, I remember thinking, ‘My friend is here! My friend is here!’” Fey wrote in a chapter called “I Don’t Care If You Like It (One in a series of love letters to Amy Poehler).” “Even though things had been going great for me at the show, with Amy there, I felt less alone.”

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Hilary Swank and Mariska Hargitay

The Oscar-winner can't say enough nice things about her longtime friend, who's currently in her last season on Law & Order: SVU. "Mariska has helped me through life-changing times but also helped me find moments of celebration," Swank raved in Ladies' Home Journal. "She's a real girl's girl. She's not threatened by strong women, and that's rare in this business."

The fact that Hargitay herself is a strong woman probably has something to do with it. "I feel blessed to stand amongst such powerful and like-minded women," the TV star told PopWrap of her girlfriends. "I think we're birds of a feather."

Swank agrees. She says the two bonded after she and her ex-husband, actor Chad Lowe, split up in 2006. "Our friendship became deeper," she revealed to More magazine. "I leaned on her, and she took my weight — and I am very grateful." Not that it's always about hard times and heartache. Swank stays with Hargitay whenever she's on location in New York, and "last time, we literally sat in her closet 'til 3 a.m., talking, going through clothes, and laughing — and she had a 7 a.m. call time!" Swank says. "She's my family."

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